NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – As a government publicity photographer, Joe O’Donnell took pictures of U.S. presidents from Truman to Johnson, but he never got much credit for the work during his lifetime.

After his death at 85 last month in Nashville, O’Donnell was falsely credited in newspaper obituaries with taking the famous photo of little John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s casket at the 1963 funeral procession.

After that error was discovered, it soon became apparent that O’Donnell had been selling photographs he never took through a Nashville art gallery – a fraud that outraged other photographers.

The source for the obituaries was a publicist for The Arts Company, which sold copyrighted prints of the salute photo as well as others that O’Donnell falsely claimed as his own.

Gallery owner Anne Brown said she never tried to verify that O’Donnell had taken the photos because she accepted his word.

But the Kennedy photo was actually taken by United Press International photographer Stan Stearns – the most famous picture he ever snapped.

O’Donnell’s son, Tyge O’Donnell, blamed his father’s dementia for the error, suggesting he mistakenly claimed to have taken Stearns’ photo and several others because he had trouble remembering which pictures were his.

When Stearns saw his photo on O’Donnell’s obituary, he said he was shocked. Stearns and his former UPI colleagues immediately began calling other retired photographers and news organizations to correct the error.